THE FIRST WORLD WAR: unlearned lessons of history. 100 years ago, Russia entered the First World War. This global conflict, which claimed millions of lives, forced a redrawing of the political map of the European continent and entailed huge economic losses, was a tragedy for the entire mankind. The current mood of many world leaders today is very similar to that which prevailed at the beginning of the last century when a major tragedy was unfolding. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. The reason was the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip. Austria-Hungary (a multinational state in Central Europe that existed in 1867-1918) stated that Serbia will pay the price for this crime and declared war. Germany, speaking on the side of the Austrians, considered it a good reason for its own geopolitical ambitions and declared war on its opponent Russia, which supported the Serbs. In the first days of August Belgium, Luxembourg and France were drawn in the war. From the very beginning, it became clear that the deceased Archduke had nothing to do with it: the countries were solving their own problems, says political scientist Natalia Narochnitskaya, Doctor of Historical Sciences. “World War I was started by deep processes in the minds of the people and in geopolitics, the desire for expansion and development of new centers of power in Europe. These contradictions intensified sharply in the early 20th century - it often happens that a conflict erupts in the beginning of a century, as we see the accumulation of contradictions now also. And it turned out that the main strategic aspirations of powers clashed at the European borders of Russia.” The countries fought for influence on the continent, for markets, for access to the sea. The quarrel spread to historic allies and people with the same faith, and new alliances were created. Gradually, the war had involved Australia, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Canada, China, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, USA, France, Montenegro, Union of South Africa, and Japan. Most of them were theaters of hostilities and suffered huge economic losses. In contrast, the United States fought on foreign soil. And huge military orders placed by different countries in America provided huge profits for the United States. Grief and suffering of some turned into luck for others: 17 thousand new millionaires emerged during the war years in the United States. As a result of the First World War, the United States turned into a global power claiming leadership of the world. At the same time. the countries started attaching great importance to internal and external propaganda, notes historian Natalia Narochnitskaya: “For the first time, the huge role of manipulating social consciousness was acknowledged. At that time, it was the press, which smeared future opponents with mud. For the first time there was such a massive satanization of rivals that it aroused the public. Today we see how the media (now electronic), whose influence has increased manifold, do the same thing, actually exacerbating the conflict and making the slide into disaster imperceptible for people.” The parallels between the events of a century ago and the current situation on the European continent are obvious. Today the interests of different countries have clashed again on the territory of Ukraine. And once again an active role is being played by the United States, which is trying to decide the fate of other countries and continents from across the ocean. Lessons from the old tragedy have been forgotten, says the head of the research programs of the Historical Memory Foundation Vladimir Simindey: “We have to admit that the leaderships of todays major countries have not learned the lessons of history and instead of making efforts to suppress the conflict, they are fanning it in every way, using contradictions between other countries. In this regard, the behavior of present Western powers which strongly support Ukrainian nationalism and are trying to draw Russia into the conflict in the Ukraine is very dangerous.” As a result of World War I four empires, viz., Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and German empires, ceased to exist. The countries participating in the war lost more than 10 million soldiers and 12 million civilians. About 55 million people were injured and maimed. But these were not the last victims in the combat for political ambitions. The contradictions could not be resolved and it took World War II to cool the hot heads of politicians greedy for influence. As it turned out, only temporarily.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 02:24:31 +0000
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